Newsletter of the Congressional Flying Club and Montgomery Senior Squadron, CAP

Vol. 28, No. 1 Gaithersburg, MD (KGAI) January 2010

The Congressional Record

In this issue
Presidents message ............................................................... 1 Paper certificates .................................................................... 1 Pilot requirements for the 182................................................ 1 Note of sympathy ................................................................... 2 Windshield care ..................................................................... 2 Fly-ins .................................................................................... 2 Preflight the pilot! .................................................................. 2 Aircraft rates .......................................................................... 3 Chaplains corner ................................................................... 3 Holly Run pix ........................................................................ 3 Fuel costs 2009 ...................................................................... 3 Refueling guidelines .............................................................. 4 Work hours ............................................................................ 4 Work hour requirements ........................................................ 5 No more polished frost! ......................................................... 5 Work hours monitor ............................................................... 5 Congratulations, Bob G! ........................................................ 6 Your flying account ............................................................... 6 Crew chiefs ............................................................................ 6 Address for checks ................................................................. 6 Funny stuff............................................................................. 6

craft you are using as well as a way to help keep the costs down. Due to some personal health issues I have requested a change in status from regular membership to special status. Thanks, BOB HAWKINS

Paper certificates
If your FAA pilot certificate is printed on paper, it's going to expire on 31 March, unless you replace it with a new plastic certificate. To get the new counterfeit-resistant certificates, you have to fill out a form and mail it to the FAA in Oklahoma City along with $2 for each certificate you want to replace, or you can do it online. Either way, the new certificate won't list your original date of issue, so you might want to keep that old dog-eared piece of paper to prove your longevity. If you apply by mail, it's going to take four to six weeks, and up to 10 days for online processing, so don't put it off till the last minute or you could find yourself grounded. Some non-pilot certificates, such as those for flight engineers and mechanics, are good for another three years, but then they will also have to be replaced. Student certificates are not affected. While you're at it, you can also ask the FAA to issue you a new certificate number that is not your social security number. There is no additional charge to make this change. BOB GAWLER

Presidents message
The New Year brings all kinds of opportunities as well as reflections of things that we have done (both good and bad). In our case, we have managed to sell off an airplane that was just not being used less than 100 hours of usage in 2009 and that was getting close to TBO. While we got just above wholesale value, at the same time we purchased a very clean and low time Cessna 182 (also at wholesale value) that looks like it will get more usage and utility for club members. I know that we harp a lot on helping with maintenance as well as pointing out that only a small handful of our folks do the majority of the work on the airplanes. Let me give you a prospective that may surprise you. Another club, on the airport, recently was trying to improve their own maintenance response time, as well as the quality of their maintenance. Well, to make a long story short, the club decided that the way to get both (quality and responsiveness) was to contract with Congressional Flying Club to have their maintenance done. I wont give you the colorful responses that were immediately forthcoming; suffice to say that we graciously declined the opportunity. Let me also point out (yet again) that assisting with maintenance is a way for you to better understand the airplane(s) you are flying. All in all, you have a fantastic opportunity to learn more about the air-

Pilot requirements for the 182

In order to fly N5244N, you need the following: A high-performance signoff A current BFR

A current medical if you are PIC Also, if you have less than 100 hours total time you need 10 hours in type (in a 182). If you have more than 100 hours total time, you need 5 hours in type (in a 182). Finally, you need a check ride in the 182 if you have not flown a 182 in the last 90 days that is, if you are not current in a 182Q. BOB HAWKINS

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Newsletter of the Congressional Flying Club and Montgomery Senior Squadron, CAP
Vol. 28, No. 1 Gaithersburg, MD (KGAI) January 2010

The Congressional Record

Note of sympathy
In addition to all those who sent cards, the Congressional Record expresses sincere condolences to Dan Boyle on his recent loss.

Windshield care
The Cardinal has a new $2000 windshield, and the 182's windshield is also in excellent condition. To keep them that way, please read the care and cleaning instructions provided by LP Aero Plastics on their web site at the link below.

http://lpaero.com/CAREINS.pdf
DICK STROCK

Pilots need to complete the "I'm Safe" checklist before each flight. Thats Illness, Medication, Stress, Alcohol, Fatigue and Emotion. Any one of these items can affect pilot performance. Often we have a small dose of a few of them perhaps a little fatigue from a hard day's work, maybe getting a little cough, under a little stress to get back for an appointment. When we think of each of these items individually, we think, That's not a big deal. But when we look at the checklist, we can see that they can all be cumulative. We spend a lot of time preflighting our airplane. We need to spend at least a little time preflighting ourselves before we start the airplane. BOB GAWLER

Fly-ins
Here is best guess for loading planes so far. Helo: Bob Gawler and Mrs. 182 : Piotr plus 2 or 3 ?? 35R : Brian Absher and family 300 : John Rabner and Ruth 9BA : Joe and Dave Burket I spoke to Kevin Brennan at the airport. He said he knew Phil Carls and Larry Falls and still doesn't mind us coming in there. The "donation" box is not mandatory but would help them upkeep the runway. He said establish 500 FPM descent a mile out and do not land past first 1/3. Guess that has some guidance even for a helo. Any stragglers out there that would like to tag along? If 182 not ready, we may reshuffle a bit. Let me know. JOE STUBBLEFIELD

This newsletter is published monthly by the Congressional Flying Club, Inc., and Montgomery Senior Squadron #18073, CAP. Unsigned articles represent the opinion of the editors, who are solely responsible for their content. Contents copyright 2010 Congressional Flying Club, Inc.; Montgomery Senior Squadron #18073, CAP; and individual authors. Meetings: Every Tuesday at 2000 at the CAP Trailer, Montgomery County Airport (KGAI), Gaithersburg, MD Physical address: Box 4, 7940-I Airpark Dr., Gaithersburg, MD 20879

Flying Club Board of Directors

President Vice-President Secretary Treasurer Members at Large Bob Hawkins Dick Strock TBD TBD Steve Bushby, Bob Gawler, Dan Larson, Mike Regen, John Strong Edco Bailey Dan Golas Dick Strock Michael Regen Bill Pechnik Bill Hughes John Peake Mark Gladstone Mike Regen Dick Strock Andy Smith, Sandy Gilmour Andy Smith, Sandy Gilmour Chip Fleming, Dan Golas

Flying Club Administration

Chaplain Scheduling Flying Accounts Work Hours Program Mtnce Advisor Mtnce Coordinator Safety Board President Public Relations Commander Deputy Commander

Preflight the pilot!

The first item for any good airman is good preparation and planning. And that starts with a preflight of the pilot before we even think about the plane. If the pilot's not airworthy, there's little point in worrying about all the other factors. Did you know that according to the AIM, pilot impairment contributes to many more accidents than failure of aircraft systems? We all worry about system problems, but do we pay enough attention to the pilot problems?

CAP Squadron Administration

Newsletter
Editors Production Mailing/Distribution

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Newsletter of the Congressional Flying Club and Montgomery Senior Squadron, CAP
Vol. 28, No. 1 Gaithersburg, MD (KGAI) January 2010

The Congressional Record

Aircraft rates
Following are our aircraft hourly rates as of 1 January 2010.
Aircraft N5244N N20300 N25883 N5135R N739BA Rate $120 * $100 $77 $92 $92

* When the aircraft becomes available Unless otherwise noted, rates are per tach hour, wet. BOB HAWKINS

handled the mailing list (including the cost of the stamps), Pieter Morrsink the press releases, Jo Della Barba the web page, Joe Stubblefield arranged the AOPA caravan for press and Santa, Joe Budge back-up Santa transportation, and John Cutcher the press from Annapolis. The run was a huge success thanks in large part to these great and wonderful people and all others who participated. The 2009 photos are up. If you have any you would like to see posted, send them my way. If you want a full resolution version of any of them, let me know. http://www.tangierhollyrun.com/index.htm BOB HAWKINS

Chaplains corner
RESOLVES FOR THE NEW YEAR 1. To never say anything insignificant; even play will build up my health and others! My words will enhance and not tear down another or what we have gained together. 2. To never hesitate to enter the team effort to have fun! I will do my part and pay all that is due of me to purchase the fun we have together. 3. To never ever cut corners compromising the safety of those in the air or on the ground! I will dedicate the time and patience it takes to prepare well for excellent flying. 4. To never bypass the opportunity to build partnerships with resourceful persons and organizations of persons! I will honor interdependence. 5. To never not think only the best of everybody all the time, whether I feel it or not! I will be optimistic. 6. To never fail to see the good that is in every situation despite any appearances to the contrary! I will be a positive person. 7. To never forget that after safety first comes joy! CHAPLAIN (LT COL) EDCO BAILEY, D. MIN., B.C.C.

Fuel costs 2009

The price of fuel is the largest contributor to the total operating cost of our aircraft fleet. In 2009 we purchased 7,261 gallons of fuel at a cost of $32,441. That works out to an average of $4.47 per gallon. Considering the average price of fuel purchased at GAI was $4.90, the club did a pretty good job of keeping our fuel costs down. However, the average price of fuel purchased at DMW was $4.03, or 87 cents less than at GAI. If we assume an average fuel consumption of 8 gph, which is typical for our 172s, this $.87 difference results in an hourly operating cost increase of about $7.00. Here are a few reminders to help keep our fuel costs under control as we move into 2010: Purchase cheap (?) fuel: Plan you flights to take advantage of less expensive fuel. Check AirNav or AOPA for current fuel prices and flight plan accordingly. Dont overfill: Fill only to within an inch or two of the top of the filler tube, especially in the summer. Fuel expands quickly once in the tanks, and it just runs out the vents. Use self-service: Self-service fuel is usually less expensive than purchasing it off the truck. Lean the mixture: Lean aggressively on the ground as soon as you start the engine, and as soon as you clear the runway upon landing. On takeoff, dont enrich the mixture until youre ready to take the runway. Upon reaching cruise altitude, perform an initial lean as soon as you reduce power. Once the aircraft is stabilized, fine-tune

Holly Run pix

I'd like to thank everyone who made the Holly Run such a huge success in 2009. Chris Gunther

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Newsletter of the Congressional Flying Club and Montgomery Senior Squadron, CAP
Vol. 28, No. 1 Gaithersburg, MD (KGAI) January 2010

The Congressional Record

the mixture using whatever instrumentation is available in the aircraft (EGT indicator; engine monitor, etc.) Reduce the power setting: Is that extra fuel you will burn to gain those extra few knots really worth it? For example, one 172 performance chart indicates that increasing RPM from 2,400 to 2,500 results in a 4% increase in airspeed, but a 12.7% increase in fuel consumption. Move the center of gravity rearward: Move that suitcase from the back seat to the luggage compartment. This reduces the amount of work the tailplane must do to maintain level flight, thus reducing drag. Think back to your primary training days Im sure you will think of additional ways to reduce our fuel cost. And while were at it, here are the average fuel consumption figures for our aircraft for the past year. Note that these figures are based on tach hour: N20300: 10.3 gph N25883: 6.7 gph N5135R: 7.8 gph N739BA: 8.5 gph As soon as we get a month or two of data for N5244N, Ill pass it along. DICK STROCK

Refueling guidelines
Over the past several months, some of our members have mentioned that they frequently must purchase fuel prior to departing GAI on a flight. This has caused a bit of irritation among some of our members. In the past, the club had a practice, if not a rule, of requiring refueling of the aircraft upon returning to GAI. Recently however, this practice has been discouraged somewhat due to the fuel price differential between GAI and some of our neighboring airports. There is nothing wrong with being frugal when purchasing fuel, but not at the expense of our fellow pilots and Club members. So here is what I am suggesting: When practical, plan to stop for fuel within a onehour flight time radius (or less) of GAI, top off and return. On the 172s, this will leave about 3.7 hours of fuel remaining in the tanks; on the 152

about 2.7 hours. For the Cardinal, if filled to the holes, about 3.9 hours; if weight & balance allow topping off, about 4.8 hours. If you burn more than an hours worth of fuel on your final leg to GAI, then you should order fuel upon your return. Dont leave it up to the next pilot to fuel the plane. This is just common courtesy; it also reduces the possibility of condensation forming in the tanks. Elsewhere in this edition I discussed the Clubs 2009 fuel cost, and suggested some ways to minimize that cost. Over the course of 2009, 45% of our fuel purchases were made at GAI, at an average price of $4.90 per gallon. Conversely, just 11% of fuel purchases were made at DMW average price $4.03 per gallon even though DMW is one of our frequentlyvisited airports. It is often used for practice approaches, takeoffs and landings, and is on the way to several other popular destinations such as LNS and THV. The average cost of fuel at FDK splits the difference between GAI and DMW, coming in at $4.41 per gallon, with just 6% of our total fuel purchases made there. If we can reduce the percentage of expensive fuel purchases, and make those purchases at airports such as DMW or FDK, it can help minimize our operating costs. In the end, any increases or reductions in our operating costs are passed on you, our pilots and members. DICK STROCK

Work hours
Amy McMaster (AJMcMaster@venable.com) is our Work Assignment Officer; contact Amy to find out what jobs are available. Mike Regen takes care of recording the hours that you work. You can e-mail your work hours to me (capflyer071@yahoo.com). When sending them to me, please put in the subject line: Work Hours, your name, # hrs worked. This will help me organize the e-mails for future reference if there are any discrepancies. MICHAEL REGEN

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Newsletter of the Congressional Flying Club and Montgomery Senior Squadron, CAP
Vol. 28, No. 1 Gaithersburg, MD (KGAI) January 2010

The Congressional Record

Work hour requirements

I've had a couple of inquiries regarding the Club's Work Credit Hour policy, so here's the deal: For the past several years the Club has had a problem where many members wait until the last month or two of the year, then try to get all their work hours in at the eleventh hour. They would then complain that there wasn't anything for them to do. There is ALWAYS something to do. There are 50-hour maintenance requirements, annual inspections, ad hoc repairs, snow to shovel, facilities to be maintained (hangar, trailer, supply shed) the list goes on and on. During the first 10 months of the year, a very few people were doing the vast majority of the work not just the required 20 hours, but in some cases hundreds of hours! Those who weren't helping could frequently be found happily flying the Club airplanes which they didn't help maintain! This gets REAL OLD, REAL QUICK! About two years ago, the Board changed the work hour regulations to split the year into two sixmonth periods. Members are required to fulfill half their annual requirement during the first six-month period, and the remainder during the second sixmonth period. If one works more than the required minimum during the first period, any excess hours are credited to the second sixmonth period. For any member who doesn't fulfill a minimum of one-half the annual requirement during the first six-month period, that member is charged for the deficit at $40 per hour. This clears the books for that period. The member is still required to fulfill one-half the annual requirement during the second period. Otherwise the member is again charged for the second-period deficit. To keep our costs down, the Club depends on our members to volunteer their time. This means EVERY member, not just a few. If one chooses not to volunteer their time, they get charged. In addition to the tasks mentioned in the first paragraph, there are numerous administrative tasks that can be done bookkeeping, accounting, writing newsletter articles, developing safety presentations, even helping at our Club picnics. There is really little excuse for a member not being able to fulfill their work hour requirement. All one must do is ask.

So there you have it. Volunteer your time or pay up. No complaints! DICK STROCK

No more polished frost!

Heres a change you may not be aware of. Remember Ms. Frost? She's on the prowl for this type of violation. I think she wrote this revision. http://www.faa.gov/news/press_releases/news_st ory.cfm?newsId=11003 DAVE LAWLOR

Work hours monitor

January is the eighth month of the work hours year, so by 31 January you should have 13.3 hours of credit. Here are the work hours waypoints listed by quarter. If you have the indicated number of hours at the end of a quarter, youre on course.
Qtr 1 31 August Qtr 2 30 November Qtr 3 28 February* Qtr 4 31 May *29 February in a leap year 5.0 10.0 15.0 20.0

Mike Regen, Keeper of the Hours, has the following reminder: Please everyone, when you submit work hours to me please...PLEASE...use the following format in the subject line: Work Hours-your last name-#hrs It is difficult for me to filter through the 6080 emails I get a day some of which, including your work hour requests, get sent to my spam box, which I only check every few days. Even though correctly formatted work hour messages are tagged, there is still a need to filter through all of them to be sure I am getting everyones work hour requests. In order to make my life easier and sure that I don't miss your work hours, PLEASE follow this format in the subject line. If youre in doubt about your work hours, contact Mike; if youre looking for jobs to do, contact Amy McMaster. DICK STROCK

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Newsletter of the Congressional Flying Club and Montgomery Senior Squadron, CAP
Vol. 28, No. 1 Gaithersburg, MD (KGAI) January 2010

The Congressional Record

Funny stuff

Congratulations, Bob G!
[From a recent press release by Master Instructors LLC] Robert K Gawler, a 6-time Master and SAFE member, recently renewed his Master CFI accreditation. Bob is an independent flight instructor as well as a designated pilot examiner (DPE) at Montgomery County Airpark (GAI) in Gaithersburg. He also works with the Civil Air Patrol and serves as a FAASTeam representative for the FAA's Baltimore FSDO area.

http://www.masterinstructors.org/
Congratulations, Bob, from all of us at CFC/MSS!

Your flying account

Dick Strock is now in charge of our flying account tracking. We have converted to QuickBooks, and every effort is being made to reconcile accounts in real time. Dick is posting aircraft usage on a weekly basis and a doing a full close just after the first of the month. You will receive the monthly statement of your account at the beginning of the month for the previous months activity. You will also get a weekly e-mail that shows your latest usage. If you don't have an e-mail account, please let Dick know and he will print out your statement.

This one is being recirculated, but its worth it. The RNAV (GPS) Rwy 16 approach at Portsmouth International at Pease (PSM) has the following waypoints: ITAWT ITAWA PUDYE TTATT IDEED Its known informally as the Tweety Bird Approach. Honest, Im not making this up! ANDY SMITH

Crew chiefs
A/C N5244N N20300 N5135R N739BA N25883 Chief Dan Hayes Richard Strock Vic McGonegal Gashaw Mengistu Ruth Hornseth Asst Chief Dan Boyle

John Peake
Phil Carls Vacant Todd OBrien

Address for checks

Please note that the address to mail Congressional Flying Club checks is: Congressional Flying Club 7940-I Airpark Road Gaithersburg, MD 20879 Checks can also be brought to the meetings and given to Bob Hawkins.

Best Wishes to all of our readers for a happy, healthy, prosperous 2010!

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